Noise when turning corners

[Michael Reilly <mreilly@xxxxxxx>]

2001 330Ci
24,300 miles
Automatic
Snow tires with 3rd party aluminum 17" wheels

Recently I have had a few instances where I was driving and heard a 
metal on metal sound... at first I thought I had just hit something 
laying in the road. Another time it sounded like a hinged plate that 
was blown up against something (ie. there was one noticable sound and 
that was it.)

Those were while going straight. I have found some instances now 
where I'll hear a noise while turning a corner sharply. Especially 
when turning out of a store driveway at moderate speed (ie. when the 
car sways to the side a little), or turning out of a raised parking 
lot (ie. traveling down an incline to the road.) This noise is a bit 
different... a bit like the noise of something struggling to slide on 
a shaft... or maybe more accurately, the sound of a wooden chair 
being slide across a floor without the aid of felt on the feet.

Unfortunately I can't seem to repeat these problems consistently. 
It'll happen one time and then not again. It happened today making a 
sharp turn in a parking lot, and then again pulling out of a parking 
lot driveway that was raised, but then not again the rest of the 
drive to work despite my attempts to replicate it.

To me the noise comes from the front right wheel, but a person in the 
passenger seat said the front left.

Any thoughts on what this might be? I want to bring it in to the 
dealer, but without a better explanation or way to repeat it, I fear 
they'll return it saying they couldn't reproduce the problem.

Thanks.

Michael

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    "The Purpose of life is to matter, to count, to stand for
    something, to have it make some difference that we lived at all."
                                                  -Rostenwich
    Michael Reilly
    Webmaster - National Technical Institute for the Deaf, RIT
    http://www.mreilly.com

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End of bmw-digest V9 #2095
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